Integration of signals by proteins that have multiple G protein-interacting domains

细胞通过使用检测特定化学或物理信号的受体来相互交流并识别环境的变化。 大多数受体通过激活细胞内的第二种蛋白质G蛋白来产生作用。然后，激活的G蛋白能够对其他细胞过程产生影响，从而允许细胞以适当的方式对原始外部信号做出反应。 此外，细胞内还有辅助蛋白，调节受体触发的G蛋白效应。 例如，为了对抗受体的激活作用，有一些蛋白质的工作是关闭G蛋白（RGS蛋白）或阻止G蛋白被打开（GoLoco蛋白）。 有趣的是，已经发现了几种调节蛋白，它们含有多个结构域，可以以不同的方式作用于G蛋白。 在某些情况下，这些功能似乎是多余的，或者彼此不一致，至少根据我们对它们的生物化学的了解。 例如，蛋白RGS14同时具有阻止G蛋白活化（通过其GoLoco基序）和关闭活化的G蛋白（通过其RGS结构域）的潜力。还有另一种基于GoLoco的蛋白质称为G18，已知它可以阻止G蛋白激活，但我们的实验室发现，这种蛋白质分子的一个以前未表征的部分可以起到相反的作用，即它促进G蛋白激活。这些复杂蛋白质的存在有力地表明，细胞处理受体信号的方式还未被发现。 拟议的研究将研究RGS14和G18的多个G蛋白相互作用结构域的组合功能如何共同控制受体信号。 这将增加我们对细胞如何相互交流以及如何应对环境变化的理解。

Cells communicate with one another and recognize changes in their environment through the use of receptors which detect specific chemical or physical signals. The majority of receptors produce their effects by activating a second protein inside the cell known as a G protein. The activated G protein then is able to produce effects on other cellular processes, thus allowing the cell to respond in an appropriate way to the original external signal. In addition, there are auxiliary proteins inside the cell that regulate the G protein effects triggered by the receptors. For example, to counter the activating effects of receptors there are proteins whose job it is to either turn G proteins off (RGS proteins) or prevent G proteins from being turned on (GoLoco proteins). Intriguingly, several regulatory proteins have been discovered that contain multiple domains that can act on G proteins in different ways. In some cases, these functions appear to be either redundant or at odds with one another, at least based on what we know about their biochemistry. For example, the protein RGS14 simultaneously has the potential to both prevent G protein activation (via its GoLoco motif) and turn off activated G proteins (via its RGS domain). There is another GoLoco-based protein known as G18 that is known to prevent G protein activation, but our laboratory has found that a previously uncharacterized part of this protein molecule can do the opposite, that is, it promotes G protein activation. The existence of these complex proteins strongly suggests that there are undiscovered ways in which cells deal with receptor signals. The proposed studies will investigate how the combined functions of the multiple G protein-interacting domains of RGS14 and G18 work together to control receptor signals. This will increase our understanding of how cells communicate with each other and respond to changes in their environment.